Lynn Forest-Hill Guest Blog: The Next Stage

Dr Lynn Forest-Hill is a medievalist and the author of Bevis of Hampton, which has been a source of inspiration for our Creative Team when it came to writing the story of Blood & Valour. We welcome a guest blog from Lynn who, in this post, talks about meeting with Matt Beames and being filmed a couple of weeks ago, and also about textual mouvance. Read on below to find out more:

After a meeting with Matt Beames I am happy to say the new incarnation of the Bevis story in comic book form is progressing well. It was astonishing to see how battered Matt’s copy of my translation has become over the last year. It really resembles a medieval manuscript! It’s so exciting that the story will reach a new readership and it’s a real privilege to contribute in a small way to this evolving project. Thanks to the Road to Agincourt project for enabling this next stage in the mouvance of the medieval text. This in itself is an extraordinary feeling – to be part of the latest stage in that very medieval process of textual mobility. Although I’m usually a purist in these matters, I’ve been reading up on medieval orality and textuality and one persuasive essay argues that there is no tension between different adaptations because each one has its own validity in its own context. The traditions of textual mouvance that characterise the Middle Ages tend to be forgotten or ignored in modern times, but the new comic book, for all its defference to contemporary design and attitudes, follows this tradition.

Matt and I spent the afternoon discussing and debating matters of style and content, and we were then interviewed on film by Chandler Divers for the Road to Agincourt project (and for the Blood & Valour website).

Matt Beames is showing me a first draft of the Blood and Valour comic and associated images. Goes to show, textual mouvance is alive and well!

Lynn’s blog explores the story, characters and history behind the tales of Sir Bevis of Hampton, read more of her work here.

Lynn and Matt discuss the similarities and differences of the medieval Countess and Sir Guy in comparison to the graphic novel versions in this insightful ‘In Conversation’ video here.

Visit the Road To Agincourtwebsite for more of their news or see here for Lynn and Matt’s conversation on why Sir Bevis was important to the young King Henry V.